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The Buildable Stick System - Arcade Edition

For the last year, I have been working on a 3D printed arcade stick project that I call the Buildable Stick System. I’ve been learning a lot about 3D printing and CAD, and I’ve cranked out a lot of arcade sticks (which I still need to document and upload here), but my latest big project has been making a sit-down cab, an idea I’ve had for years now that I was finally able to execute. I’ve open sourced the 3D printing models I designed for this purpose, and now that people have played on the finished build, I’m excited to share the project with others!

Behold: the Buildable Stick System - Arcade Edition!

The Machine/Enclosure

I started with a Qanba 2009 Arcade Base to cover the basic frame. It’s very solid, and while I’d prefer if it was a bit heavier, it does a great job as a frame for the project. The rest of the arcade machine is the 3D printed enclosure, in this arrangement a long two player sit-down setup, each player getting 14 action buttons, a lever, and 7 aux buttons. The pieces for this are documented in further detail in the Git repository.

The Gaming Elements

With the physical object covered above, the rest was picking the parts to actually play games. I am also a member of the GP2040-CE project, which produces awesome firmware and hardware for arcade sticks and game controllers, so that was an obvious choice for the controller elements, using my variant of the RP2040 Advanced Breakout Board.

For the monitor I went with an Acer Predator XB283K — it’s a 4K monitor that supports HDMI 2.1, so if/when I hook up a PS5 to the arcade machine, it’ll support 120 Hz and VRR. For now, it’s a very fast, very capable 4K monitor that pops pretty nicely. I also got an adjustable monitor arm that supports rotation, in order to angle it as desired and also play shmups in tate mode.

I have an extensive PlayStation library, so using a PS4 (currently a Slim, but eventually a Pro) was an obvious choice. I also hooked up a MiSTer for playing older arcade stuff and older consoles, so between the two, I’ve got a pretty large set of things to play. As you can see from the photos, my test games were Guilty Gear Xrd and Marvel vs. Capcom 2, and I also have some pictures of my son playing Neo Turf Masters and Hyper Street Fighter II.

I still need to get a good USB hub to support four players more easily — the two RP2040ABBs use the two USB ports on the PS4 Slim, making it impossible to connect more arcade sticks if people want to collect around the machine (I tried designing a four player layout, but it didn’t really work out — yet, anyway), and pairing more DS4s currently takes swapping cables back and forth. This is less of an issue for the MiSTer, but still, it’d be nice to plug in one less thing when switching consoles.

The Project

I hope you found all of this cool. All of the above is open source and available, again, as part of my Buildable Stick System. If you’re interested in following and/or contributing, please check out that project repo, or its mirror on GitHub, and please contact me in #buildable-stick-system on my Randomus IRC network!

Dizzy's win screen from Guilty Gear Xrd, displayed on the monitor on the arcade machine. Both players' controls are visible. The arcade panel is red, with white controls on black plates. Behind them, there are black panels with black aux controls on gray plates.
The arcade machine running Guilty Gear Xrd
A close shot of the directional control buttons and lever, in white, with aux buttons in black in the background.
Controls close-up
A longer shot of the arcade panel, one whole player's controls can be see, buttons and lever in white.
Longer controls close-up
Part of the demo from Marvel vs. Capcom 2, displayed on the monitor on the arcade machine. Wolverine is slashing into Cyclops in mid-air.
The arcade machine running Marvel vs. Capcom 2